Kathy YakalSage One InvoicingSage One Invoicing offers simple tools for creating contact, product, and service records, and for using that information in invoices and quotes. But its depth, flexibility, and richness of features richness can't compete with FreshBooks'.

Sage One Invoicing offers simple tools for creating contact, product, and service records, and for using that information in invoices and quotes. But its depth, flexibility, and richness of features richness can't compete with FreshBooks'.

A few years ago, Sage introduced a starter accounting website called Sage One that eventually morphed into two separate sites: Sage Online Invoicing and Sage One Standard. Sage One Invoicing, as the name implies, focuses on helping small businesses get paid—and as fast as possible. Sage One lacks many of the features that cloud-based accounting sites like FreshBooks and GoDaddy Bookkeeping offer, but it does let you accept credit cards. If a self-employed individual or contractor only wants help managing invoices and payments, Sage One Invoicing may suffice—especially if he or she wants to remain in the Sage family when growth necessitates an upgrade.

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Getting Around Sage One Invoicing's user interface and navigational tools are quite simple. A horizontal toolbar at the top displays everything the site does: Invoices, Quotes, Products & Services, Contacts, and Reports. Navigation is easy, but the site's user interface lacks the richness and graphical finesse of QuickBooks Self-Employed and FreshBooks.

Sage One Invoicing lets you add records on the fly, so you could just start by creating invoices (the first tab on the toolbar) and the necessary product and customer records as you go. But this repeatedly interrupts your workflow. Competitors tend to arrange their toolbars in the order that a new user would be likely to use them, starting with Contacts and ending with Invoices and Reports. Sage One Invoicing does the reverse of this, for the most part.

Other than that, Sage One Invoicing uses standard Windows conventions. You'll click an arrow to display a drop-down list, fill in blanks, and use buttons for commands like Save.

Creating Contacts Since there's little to do on the Setting screens (accessible via the gear icon at the upper right) other than enter/verify your business information, select an invoice template and logo, and establish default terms, it makes sense to start with the Contacts screens, located at the far right of the toolbar.

If you already have customer data stored in Outlook, Gmail, or Yahoo, you can import it in .CSV format. If you don't, and when you want to add new contacts, you can enter them manually. Sage One Invoicing's contact record formats are roughly comparable to its competitors'. You can store name and address information and add some notes. Contacts can be designated as customers, contractors, employees, and vendors.

All the record formats in Sage One Invoicing work similarly. They're simply windows that contain empty fields. When you want to enter a new contact, for example, you click on the Contacts tab, then on Create Contact. You enter the information needed and click the Save button. Completed records can be viewed in list format. That's the same as what is offered by Sage One Invoicing's competitors.

The Product and Service records are in Sage One Invoicing are fairly sketchy. For products, you enter a Description, Selling Price, Purchase Price, and Notes. The Purchase Price field seems unnecessary, since Sage One Invoicing doesn't any kind of item-tracking or item reports. Service records only require a Description, Rate, and Notes. FreshBooks offers more detailed item/service records, and it does have some basic inventory-tracking.

Creating Forms Sage One Invoicing support two types of transaction forms: Quotes (estimates) and Invoices. They're similar, but there are a few differences. Quote forms contain the standard fields offered by competitors, including Quote date and Good thru date, a Reference field, and a grid designed for entering information about the products or services being offered. Its columns include a Description, Tax status, Quantity/Hours, Price/Rate, and Discount. There are boxes at the bottom for terms and comments to customers.

Invoice forms follow the same formula, except the Good thru date is replaced by a Due date, and the Reference field reads Reference/PO number, in case the customer has submitted a purchase order. Unlike the Quote form, Invoices include boxes you can check to create a PDF or email the invoice after saving it. They lack the Preview option that competitors like FreshBooks offer.

FreshBooks transaction forms contain a similar set of fields, but that's where the similarity ends. Everything Sage One Invoicing does, FreshBooks does better. For example, FreshBooks lets you email quotes and convert them into invoices on acceptance. It supports more payment gateways, and includes a history for each invoice. FreshBooks also lets you set up recurring invoices, and it will send any invoice by U.S. Mail (for a fee).

A Slow Starter Sage One Invoicing offers only one report: Aged Invoices. But its invoice list view, which appears when you click on the Invoices tab, displays the status of each invoice (Overdue, Paid, etc.). Opening a drop-down list lets you see only invoices that have the same status. Quotes work the same way: You can quickly learn what quotes are pending, for example and also modify the date range.

Sage is known for producing financial software and websites that are workhorses. Sage One Invoicing, though, lacks the depth, functionality, and UI excellence that are typical of Sage solutions. Granted, FreshBooks has been around longer, but it's grown exponentially since its early beginnings. Sage One Invoicing has not.

Sage One Invoicing lacks the depth and richness that FreshBooks—our Editors' Choice for cloud accounting for very small businesses and sole proprietors—displays in every corner of its online space. FreshBooks may not be full-blown double-entry accounting, but it supports many of the most commonly-used small business financial functions—and in a way that someone who doesn't have "CPA" after his or her name can understand. Sage One Invoicing is a decent competitor, but it has a long way to go to catch up with FreshBooks.

Sage One Invoicing

Bottom Line: Sage One Invoicing offers simple tools for creating contact, product, and service records, and for using that information in invoices and quotes. But its depth, flexibility, and richness of features richness can't compete with FreshBooks'.

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About the Author

Kathy Yakal has been annoying computer magazine editors since 1983, when she got her first technology writing job because she tagged along with her ex-husband on a job interview. She started freelancing and specializing in financial applications when PCs became financial tools for consumers and small businesses (after a stint at a high-end accounti... See Full Bio

Sage One Invoicing

Sage One Invoicing

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